Uitglijden = to slip and modern Dutch society always eager for making a big bug without showing any courtesy is at its merciless best these days with regular snowfall.

The main shopping arcade street, Kalverstraat – good for a turn over of many millions these holy consuming days – has a parade of hundred thousands of unstable tripping shoes as not a penny is invested in doing anything about the slippery mass on the pavement.

One may observe fragile older people making their unescorted foray for their daily milk and bread up the slippery stairs of the biggest luxurious supermarkets of Albert Heijn in the inner town (because often that are the only shops left in the area), with the multinational food chain not making any effort to help these customers, handicapped by the uncommon weather conditions…

This is turning a ‘happy white christmas’ into ‘a white terror’ for those who have come to an age where a slip will not be followed by getting up again for a long while… The Netherlands stronghold of discourtesy. The Netherlands paradise of eager egoists.

Whereby an extra stimulus for falling is offered by the polished expensive natural stone surfaces in these fashionable shops which have never been tested in such thousands of wet shoes entering conditions. My guess is that architects nowadays do not know anymore about the need of a good grip of a shoe sole on pavement and floors… and liability because of neglect of shopkeepers or municipality in such circumstances is hardly a known phenomenon in the Low Countries.